Difference between residential and built up areas in the UK

[djiboi]

On the drone safe website they have this image. What would constitute a built up area or a crowd? It seems I can fly over a house with 3 people stood outside but not a building with 5 people stood inside.

Clear as mud hey!?

T

 

[Danchow96]

Built up areas tend to have some high risers... but it’s all a big grey area over here in the UK!

 

[djiboi]

I live in a town where there are no high rise buildings, just detached, semis and bungalows.

 

[Phil_C]

Even areas in the UK with no 'high rise' buildings, which to be honest is most UK towns and villages outside of the town centres, the building density is usually such that it isn't possible to be more than 50m horizontally from buildings.

Although interestingly it appears to suggest you could be more than 50m above a low building and be ok provided your take off and landing site is somewhere open and 50m away from the nearest building. As 150m is greater than the height limit recommended it would seem you can't overfly crowds and built up areas in the same way.

The illustration is clear as mud and not very sensible. - P

 

[djiboi]

Yeah that's what is confusing me, it seems I could take off in a field and fly over my street (50m) high but not over a built up area. It seems to contradict itself

 

[Danchow96]

The thing is, if you fly over a built up area - 50m or 150m if the drone falls out of the sky it’s still going to do a lot of damage... to the drone and possibly people or property

 

[ICHOTT]

The thing is, if you fly over a built up area - 50m or 150m if the drone falls out of the sky it’s still going to do a lot of damage... to the drone and possibly people or property

Yes, that’s the nub of it I guess, it’s not so much about the ‘rules’ it’s about what could go wrong.
If the drone dies and drops like a brick, what could it hit and (perhaps) more importantly, could I get it back

See this new thread:
Mavic pro simply fell out of the sky while flying

 

[djiboi]

I think the distance is away from built up areas, not above it as shown on the right hand side of the graphic. You should never fly above built up areas or crowds

 

[djiboi]

As I was always told, 2 is company, 3 is a crowd. So by that logic, the graphic on the left is wrong.

 

[Phil_C]

The other thing that interest me is that there is no mention of whether or not you have the landowners permission or have control of the site or not.

For example I regularly monitor the ecology and breeding birds at a number of sites and protected areas for the landowners, at one the site that is normally open to public access there is a rare raptor breeding on a cliff face which backs onto a row of houses about 20m away. When we climb the raptor nest to monitor the state of nesting the whole site is closed to the public for the day so we don't draw attention to the nest site when we climb it. (they lock the gates and put up signs saying closed for health and safety due to mechanised equipment in use).

I have considered using a drone to overfly the nest to see the contents without climbing the site, as this will cause much less disturbance than spending 30 minutes roping the site and climbing and let us plan for just one climb when we know the chicks are ready for ringing (in the US banding).

A drone overflight will probably take 30 seconds or so. But even though the site is closed the guidance says we shouldn't fly the drone only 20m from the housing behind the site. (before any shouts about disturbance I am trained and licensed by the government for the monitoring and research work I do).

Does anywhere else make any references whether the rules are different when flying over private as opposed to public land? - P

 

[djiboi]

The height seems to be more related to privacy rather than safety

• If fitted with a camera, a drone must be flown at last 50m away from a person, vehicle, building or structure not owned or controlled by the pilot.
• Camera-equipped drones must not be flown within 150m of a congested area or large group of people, such as a sporting event or concert

 

[djiboi]

Does anywhere else make any references whether the rules are different when flying over private as opposed to public land? - P

Land owners do not own the airspace above them. So you can fly over but not take off from. Obviously is you crash on their land, you'll have to ask permission to get your drone back.